Jennifer Lloyd has faithfully served the Circles^® Initiative in an unselfish and wonderfully loyal way.

On the fourth Thursday of each month Jennifer organizes volunteers from her church community at Trinity Episcopal Church to prepare dinner for 50+ of our Circles^® community members. Each month she takes the initiative to plan the meal, recruit volunteers and organize the serving and clean up after the meal. Each month the volunteers that Jennifer brings in are enthusiastic and joyfully friendly. She and her church community originally committed to volunteering for a year, but have continued to serve for what has now become 18 months. This has been an incredible contribution to our efforts, because it enables us to focus our efforts in other areas.

These meals are instrumental to the program’s ability to reach overall goals of raising awareness of the issues of poverty in Monroe County, as well as to help people who are experiencing poverty to transition into a more stable socio-economic status. Without the meals that Jennifer provides each month, the members of our community who are transitioning out of poverty would not be able to attend Circles^® meetings. The meetings are typically scheduled during the dinner hour and without Jennifer’s faithful service, many Circles^® members would be faced with the issue of finding a quick meal for their children which would most likely result in a stop at a fast-food restaurant, which is neither healthy nor very helpful to someone who is living on a very tight budget. The meals that Jennifer organizes her friends to provide for, remove a barrier for people who face so many barriers in life.

Jennifer’s involvement in Circles^® has raised awareness among the people in her church community and given us an opportunity to build a community partnership with Trinity Episcopal Church. We have really enjoyed getting to know the great people who Jennifer brings to our community meetings to volunteer.

Because of the faithful service of Jennifer, the Circles^® group is able to have community meetings that empower people to make plans and put them into action. These plans enable Circle Leaders to increase their resources to that they can transition out of poverty and gain a more stable economic status. The impact of her service is perhaps greater than we will ever know. As each family attends Circles^® meetings, they are one step closer to accomplishing the goals that will not only improve economic status, but will also improve the ability of their children to reach their full potential.

Jennifer Lloyd deserves is a reliable and dedicated volunteer. There is a lot of work that goes into recruiting volunteers and coordinating their efforts to cook dinner for 50+ people. However, on the weeks that Jennifer is volunteering, all breathe a sigh of relief, because we know that not only will she gather volunteers, organize the meal, and provide a wonderfully nutritious meal, but she will do it all with a loving attitude, that lets us know that she really cares. Jennifer’s dedication has made it very clear that she really cares about doing her part to help end poverty in Monroe County.